Our Sportsperson of the Year: Trenton High football coach Tarig Holman

An all-stater in high school, All-American nominee in college, an NFL draft pick and a promising high school football coach.

It just got a little longer.

The first-year Trenton High football coach has been voted The Trentonian Sportsperson of the Year.

It’s no surprise to his coaching comrades in Mercer County, his administrators and fellow coaches at Trenton High, and anyone who has met the personable guy who has already laid the groundwork for transforming the oldest high school football program in the Colonial Valley Conference.

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He is the second football coach to win the award — succeeding Nottingham’s Jon Adams who was the first Sportsperson of the Year after he battled back from cancer in the summer of 2012 and proceeded to lead his team to the Central Jersey Group III state championship — Mercer County’s first state title since 1989 and the finest year in Nottingham history at 11-1.

Ironically, it was a 22-13 win at Nottingham in only his second game as Tornadoes coach that convinced the traditionally large Trenton football fan base that this year all the hopes about a return to football prominence at the Chambers St. school might come true as Trenton went on to an 8-2 season.

What made it more impressive was that the Tornadoes had won only seven games in their previous five seasons and were winless twice.

“Everyone in the county knew if you got the right person at Trenton, someone who could instill discipline and could bring their talented athletes together they could be successful,” Adams said following Trenton’s season-turning road win.

“There was no nonsense in Trenton High football anymore,” said Adams, whose 2013 team had another successful season, too, making it to the second round of state play.

What earned Holman the unique Sportsperson of the Year acclaim wasn’t just winning football games.

It’s the mindset he brought to a program that always had one of the biggest support groups in the county, but never gave the fans confidence better days had finally arrived.

But by the third game, Trenton’s bleachers were packed. Fans were returning to Bill Harvin Sdadium.

No more nonsense at practice,.

Over 60 young boys came out in the heat of summer to workout and learn what winning football was really about. You do the hardwork in the off-season and you enjoy the rewards when the games start.

Trenton High administrators knew their newest coach had the something special to get football back to the success the basketball and track teams always enjoyed.

“You could tell Tarig was a dedicated coach. He had the commitment and wanted only the best from his players,” said the school’s athletic director Sharon Grady, who had waited patiently for a teaching position to open at TCHS so Holman could come aboard.

Wife of longtime Trenton football coach and championship girls track Dan Grady, Sharon could spot a winner when she saw one.

Holman certainly is a winner. He proved it as a youngster at Randolph High in Morris County where he earned all-state acclaim on one of Jersey’s best program.

It earned him a scholarship to University of Iowa where he made All-Big 10 and did something few other collegiate players ever did.

On consecutive passes in a Big 10 game against Michigan, Holman intercepted Tom Brady twice.

Once he came aboard at TCHS, his players, especially the seniors who were tired of seeing their talent wasted and having to endure losing seasons, took charge and got the underclassmen to believe.

From the earliest days of practice David ‘Poppy’ Sanderson — Trenton High’s revered trainer — knew Holman was going to change the football fortunes immediately.

“The players were dedicated immediately to doing what he taught them. They wanted to win, and knew he was the one who could show them how to do it,” said Sanderson.

Holman’s longtime coaching associate Chris Franco, who was with him when they were on the staff that led New Brunswick High to a top ranking in the state 10 years ago, said he was surprised how quickly the Trenton boys took to their new coach and his staff.

“Having coached against Trenton in the past I knew the talent was here,” Franco said. “Tarig put it to work and got them to believe. It was great to see.”

“These weren’t just outstanding players, but great kids,” Holman said. “It was great to be working with them and see the commitment they brought to the game, and being excellent student athletes.”

In Trenton, where too much has been publicized about the gang-related problems and the negativity that goes with it, Tarig Holman did his part to show the good side of Trenton’s youth.

It makes the 2013 Trentonian Sportsperson of the Year a one-of-a-kind guy who the area sports community hopes has many better days still to come.